Since 2008, the Perseids have produced more fireballs than any other annual meteor shower. The Geminids are a close second, but they are not as bright. / NASA

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News Journal

If you’ve noted a fresh, albeit light, breeze out of the northwest or somewhat drier air, that’s because a frontal boundary, slow-moving and nearly stationary, has managed to shift just to the southeast of Richland County.

There’s still quite a bit of rain showing on the radar in Ohio. Most is in the form of sprinkles from Mansfield north and west, but more ambitious bands of rain are hovering to our south, where they should remain.

While our weather is improving, it’s a slow improvement, and won’t speed up until another weak cold front starts to push out the clouds and any remaining moisture late Friday into early Saturday. With all the weather features in our vicinity, clouds will remain boxed in Friday, which in turn should hold our temperatures to the upper 70s for highs.

There’s a beautiful weekend in store. Mostly sunny skies with highs in the 70s and low humidity levels will be the rule for both Saturday and Sunday.

Our next chance of rain – not a significant one at this point – will arrive Monday night and Tuesday, followed by yet another spell of unseasonably cool temperatures for the middle of next week, equivalent to what we’ve experienced recently.

Hopefully, the frontal boundary scheduled to be in our vicinity early next week won’t interfere too much with the Perseid meteor shower, which will peak on Monday and Tuesday nights from 10:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. The number of meteors should increase as the night wears on.

The Perseids are generally considered our most active meteor shower of the year, as the Earth passes through dust from Comet Swift-Tuttle, leading to meteors that burn up in our atmosphere as they come roaring down at 132,000 mph. Although the Perseids can be spotted in any region of the sky, it’s best to look toward the constellation Perseus in the northeast.

Below are the weather statistics for Thursday, Aug. 8, at my location 4 miles north-northwest of Fredericktown, Ohio: